All tagged letter from the editor
Pop culture permeates every facet of my being. I speak in Simpsons references, I study Frank Henenlotter films to create trivia questions, even my WIP, a novel about a woman who makes poor dating choices, is rife with sections about movies. Pop culture is important to me, and it's clearly important to everyone else too.
Here’s our small, intimate January issue, which we felt was a great way to ease into 2024.
I hope the holidays are peaceful and filled with love.
I've softened my stance on Thanksgiving over the years, though. For one thing, I'm happy(ish) now.
Things are so terrible in the world right now, and we only have each other. It's not the worst thing, a community. Sometimes it's the greatest thing, actually.
Hello, friends!
Welcome to the April Pop Culture issue, our grandest issue of the year, jammed packed with nougatty pop culture goodness! In this issue you'll find everything from praise for Saul Goodman to condemnation of Hugh Hefner. From poetry to fiction to film crit, this annual extravaganza of sights and sounds is sure to amaze at best, and at worst kill an hour or two of your time.
Recently I've found myself really indulging in cinema more than I have in the past; I'll admit around 2017 I fell away from movies in favor of more feel-good programming like Great British Baking Show or The Good Place. The world fucking sucks a lot of the time, and I didn't want to indulge in any more suffering than I had to. God forbid I relive the physical pain I felt watching Christine in 2016. But at the beginning of this year my husband and I started doing themed movie months: giallo, horny, action, cinematographic masterpieces, and it's been so amazing to revisit old favorites and discover new ones (I'm probably the last on earth to see Paris,Texas). Additionally, I've started going to the movies a lot more on my own, which I had never done prior to this year. Consuming this much film media has profoundly increased my appreciation of it, as well as informed my own writing. Can't beat that, especially as someone who is working on a few scripts of my own.
I feel like every year I try to write some schmaltzy nonsense akin to what they blather on about at the beginning of the Oscars, and I'm not going to do that here. Instead I'm going to say this: pop culture is important to me, and sure it's important to you too, in its own way. Whether you're losing a full day of work because of the Scandoval or weeping over a double feature of Too Wong Fu and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, whether you're rocking out to the Inferno score or yelling at Ticketmaster over the price of Taylor Swift tickets, pop culture is there to entertain you, nourish you, or fill some time until your next great adventure.
Now for some news: we reopen for all categories on May 1 and will remain open through June. Our chapbook press is busy getting Candice Kelsey's Choose Your Own Poem ready (you can preorder it OR purchase a subscription to our 2022/23 catalog here) and then we'll be at work on Trapper Markelz's Childproof Sky and Cathleen Conway's Nocturnes. Watch for those preorders, coming soon.
I hope you have a lovely spring.
Always,
KCH
Hello Friends,
It's the last issue of the year! Let's keep this short and sweet.
This year we published eleven amazing issues. We overcame our long wait for publication— thank you for your patience. We started a chapbook press and published our first book. We watched other journals implode; we stood up for ourselves and for others. We nominated people for Pushcarts. We celebrated pop culture. We survived.
We're off now until January. While we're away we'll be revamping the site, choosing our second book to publish, and spending time with our loved ones. When we reopen we'll be accepting all submissions, including our favorite: the pop culture issue.
Be safe, loves, be merry. Thank you for a great year.
Always,
KCH
Hello friends! I can't believe this year is winding down as quickly as it is. Here we are with our penultimate issue of 2022; we're back in November, then we're off for the holidays. I want to thank you for your patience if you are a contributor to our journal. I know many of you were waiting upwards of the year to show up on the site. I'm happy to announce that the year long wait is no longer a thing. We're caught up, and now we're only asking you for a more reasonable few months wait!
It's hot everywhere in America, too hot. Things seem rather bleak, but now it's hard to remember a time when they didn't. What can we do really? We can rage against it, but it's also important to remember being gentle with ourselves. I hope this letter is finding you in a gentle moment.
It has always been our mission to be a safe haven for all under the queer umbrella, and to fight loudly and obnoxiously anyone whose views are bigoted nonsense. I hope you know that we love you for who you are, and are here to fight the good fight.
Last month was pop culture month, and what a month it was! We were so lucky to showcase many, many talented and wonderful people, and we were glad to do it. It is truly a privilege to run this journal, especially the pop culture issue. Thank you again for another successful year!
The title of this issue comes from my favorite song on The Who's Tommy album, "See Me, Feel Me/ Listening To You." This is on the movie soundtrack, not the actual Tommy album. I'm really enamored by this song, and I listen to it pretty much constantly.
It's just simple things every day that leave impressions on my heart. It's being alive after everything I've ever experienced fought hard for me not to be. It's being here, writing this, and knowing you're reading it. It's every feature in this issue, and every issue before and every issue after.
At least we have a good issue for you all. It's nice to be back in the saddle, even if I lapse in email replies and 24 hour turnarounds every so often. Please enjoy these features, some of which waited a long time to get here.
Welcome to October! We have a slightly bigger than usual issue for y'all this month as we wind down on our publishing year. I want to thank all the contributors for their patience; at this point it's about a year wait for some categories to get published, so they are deserving of a pat on the back.
Last month was a doozy, y'all. We had an earth shattering 441+ submissions. 141 of those were our 24 hour option. So, I am exhausted! I am grateful we have this month off to regroup and plan out the next few issues.
We'll be open for submissions for the rest of the month, then closed for June. We need One Perfect Episode and It's Good, Actually submissions, so if you've got something, send it our way!
I had anticipated, and we did get, an increase in submissions for this issue. Honestly, the Pop Culture issue is our most favorite issue, and we're always talking about it and, the minute it's published, looking forward to the next year. However, you all exceeded my expectations for submissions in both quantity and quality. We had so many.
So often, victims of sexual abuse are asked to hold space for the abusers. Maybe they have changed! They are still human! They don’t deserve to be defined by their shortcomings! So often they are asked over and over to step back into the shadows so the discussion can be about how much we can reform rapists, and how much we should allow them back into our society.
